Cape employers already eyeing summer

The window for pursuing foreign help opens, and businesses say local workers may not be enough despite the weak economy.

SARAH SHEMKUS

Even as the first snowflakes are starting to fall, Cape Cod employers are gearing up for summer hiring.

Local help-wanted ads this week and last have featured a flurry of listings for low-level summer jobs: housekeepers, dishwashers, prep cooks.

The ads are the first step in the long, complicated process of applying for authorization to hire H-2B workers for seasonal positions. And these efforts, and the results they are generating, offer the first glimpse into how the labor landscape is shaping up for next summer.

And it seems that Cape labor force next year will be in the midst of finding a new balance between domestic and foreign workers.

Even with continued high unemployment, it will be necessary to bring in foreign help, local employers, recruiters and immigration lawyers said. Americans, they said, are still not interested in entry-level, seasonal jobs,

"Most American workers want full-time jobs, year-round," said Jane Nichols Bishop, whose business, Peak Season Workforce in West Dennis, helps local employers complete the visa application process. "Of the several ads that we have already placed for our clients, we are getting a very low response from American workers."

H-2B visas, on which many Cape employers have long depended, allow businesses to temporarily hire foreign workers if sufficient local employees cannot be found. Each year, up to 66,000 of the temporary work visas can be issued, half in the fall and winter, half in the spring and summer.

Employers must first run ads recruiting local workers, to prove no Americans are available for the jobs. These listings include the job duties, an application deadline and the hourly wage — generally between $8 and $11 — which must be the prevailing wage in the area for that position, as determined by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Legally, these ads can not appear any earlier than 120 days before the anticipated start date for the job. The ads that have recently appeared call for employees to start working as soon as April 1.

Paul Becker, owner of D'Angelo Grilled Sandwiches locations in West Chatham and South Yarmouth, placed an ad seeking temporary workers. In the two weeks since the listing appeared, he has heard from two local applicants.

One was clearly unqualified, he said.

"The other one, the individual was stoned when he came in, so I thought it best I shouldn't hire him," Becker said.

However, the small number of American applicants may have more to do with the time of year than a lack of locals willing to do the work, said Al Roy, director of the Career Opportunities center in Hyannis, which provides services to unemployed job-seekers.

"For the most part, people aren't even aware those jobs are out there," he said. "The people who are here doing active job searching are going to be looking for what's available today."

The economic downturn has now lingered for so long that more and more people are facing the end of their unemployment benefits, Roy said. And, he said, many of these job seekers are unlikely to turn up their noses at the chance to clean hotel rooms or work for a landscaper.

"There may be a number of people who will be in that position and they may be looking to capture any job that may be available," he said. "I think nowadays we're looking at just about anything."

Others worry that the use of H-2B workers keep pay rates from growing like they otherwise might. Though employers must offer the prevailing wage, the availability of workers at that rate may prevent employers from increasing pay in an attempt to compete for local labor, said Jacquie Scarbrough, the founder of WE CAN, a Harwich-based nonprofit that provides assistance to women.

"I was meeting various women who had worked in retail and suddenly found that they were being offered the same wages they were making back in 1989," she said.

But employers and others maintain that hiring foreign workers is necessary.

"American companies would prefer to hire Americans first if they are available, rather than going through the expense and inexact predictability of the process," said Matthew Lee, a Centerville-based immigration lawyer.

Nathan Nickerson, owner of Arnold's Clam Bar in North Eastham, dismissed concerns that his H-2B workers could displace local residents interested in a job at his restaurant.

Even later in the season, "if there were any qualified Americans that were interested in working here, I would find a place for them," he said.

In 2008 and 2009, the annual visa cap was quickly reached, preventing most Cape employers from getting the foreign help they had counted on.

"Those two years were awful," Becker said.

Now, however, the slow economy has lowered demand for foreign workers, Lee said.

Employers are hiring less overall, and finding more Americans — though still not enough — for available jobs.

As a result, more visas were available in 2010, and visas are likely to be even more easily available this summer.

"I am not getting half the amount of calls about it that I used to get in the past," Lee said. "There are fewer employers that are clamoring to get in to the program."

As of Dec. 13, only 26,539 H-2B visas had been issued for the current fiscal year.

New rules governing the application process have also made it more expensive and time-consuming to complete the needed paperwork, which may be discouraging some employers who might otherwise have considered using the program.

"The paperwork is horrendous, complicated and complex," Bishop said. "But it is working — because we don't have any other options but to make it work."

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.